Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, did the government have a written agreement with Stellantis before the IRA was passed into law?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, was the agreement with Stellantis in writing?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, does the finance minister believe that the GST rebate was an inflationary spend or not?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, there has been a lot of debate in this place about the extent to which public spending contributes to inflation. I am wondering if the minister believes that all public spending contributes to inflation, or just certain kinds.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, for instance, does the minister believe that the GST rebate, which is targeted at low-income Canadians, was an inflationary spending item?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I will take the minister to be saying that she does not believe that investing in child care is inflationary. Does she believe that doubling the GST rebate two times was an inflationary spend by government?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, does the minister believe that pharmacare, which is a program that would lower the amount Canadians spend on prescription drugs against the current amount they spend, would be inflationary?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, how can lowering prices be inflationary?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, does over $30 billion in infrastructure spending risk being inflationary?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, infrastructure investments are important, but they can also be inflationary. Does the minister recognize that infrastructure spending can be inflationary?

Rail Transportation  Publicly delivered.

Amendments to the Standing Orders  Mr. Speaker, the issue of confidence has been studied a number of times. It has been studied in the House and outside the House. The reasons why I chose not to refer it to the procedure and House affairs committee are twofold. The first is out of respect for the work that it is doing currently on foreign interference and a number of important issues, and an issue of privilege, actually, after the last day, with respect to the member for Wellington—Halton Hills.

Amendments to the Standing Orders  I do believe that all too often, the government does not take the work that we do in the House of Commons and its committees seriously. That is why I think that we as members of Parliament must take measures to ask for that respect. This is about targeting the Prime Minister's important powers and saying the elected chamber should have more say in these decisions.

Amendments to the Standing Orders  Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians would agree that politicians are often disappointing and find ways to abuse things that ought not to be abused, so I certainly would not make the claim that anything that comes out of this place is beyond abuse. One hopes that it has enough clarity and instruction behind it that folks would find it hard to abuse.

Amendments to the Standing Orders  moved: That: (a) the House recognize that, (i) it is a prerogative of the Crown to prorogue or dissolve Parliament at its pleasure, (ii) the circumstances surrounding a prorogation of the House may bear on whether the government enjoys the confidence of the House, (iii) the confidence convention is an important cornerstone of the Canadian political system, (iv) the confidence convention has never been clearly codified and this has sometimes led to confusion among members and the general public as to the nature and significance of certain votes, (v) governments have sometimes abused the confidence convention to reinforce party discipline or influence the outcome of a vote that is not explicitly a matter of confidence or that would not be considered a matter of confidence by convention; (b) in the opinion of the House, (i) the House itself, not the Prime Minister, should be the final authority as to whether the government of the day enjoys the confidence of the House, (ii) when the House assembles following a general election, the government shall be called upon to demonstrate it enjoys the confidence of the House, (iii) before a prorogation occurs, the House ought to have an opportunity to express its confidence in the government, (iv) the means by which the House may pronounce itself on a question of confidence should be explicit, clear and predictable so that all members know well in advance when and how the confidence of the House will be tested, (v) once the House has determined such means in its Standing Orders or in legislation, the government should not seek to circumvent the process established by the House by declaring a vote to be a matter of confidence if the rules of the House would not otherwise designate that vote as a matter of confidence, and any attempt to do so constitutes a contempt of Parliament, (vi) a question of confidence is a serious matter and should not be used as a pretext for dilatory tactics by either side of the House; (c) effective from the 20th sitting day after the adoption of this motion or at the beginning of the next Parliament, whichever comes first, the Standing Orders be amended as follows: (i) by adding, after Standing Order 53.1, the following new standing order: “53.2(1) The government must enjoy the confidence of the House of Commons.